DRM throwdown

This week saw digital media types flocking to the Digital Rights Management Strategies conference, held in NYC's downtown Puck Building June 27 and 28. If you're at all interested in being able to use your movie and music files without too many overbearing DRM headaches, it's a topic you should be interested in.

While I was too busy waiting for the postman to bring my latest shiny object d'art to actually attend, I did manage to IM a few people who did, pressing them for details. The highlight, I'm told, was Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Appearing on a panel about the recent Grokster Supreme Court decision, the contrarian lawyer was the lone voice for anti-DRM forces, suggesting instead a kind of all-you-can-eat monthly license fee individuals could buy for unlimited music trading, kind of like an ASCAP license for a radio station.